Incarnadine | Prequel to "Viridescence"

41

7th July
2017

"The supplies are here!" Hongjoong yells as he stands in the foyer of the mansion with a few large crates beside him.

He stands proudly as four men come sprinting in his direction suddenly.

A regular occurrence at this point, he pulls out a list instantly and clears his throat. "Test tubes and beakers, crate one!" he calls out. Jongho and San scurry forward and lift a big crate together carefully and move it to the side.

"Bandages and a bunch of medicines that I can't pronounce, crate two!" Hongjoong shouts next. Yeosang's face lights up and he skips to his crate before dragging it back.

"A bunch of novels?" he utters with a bit of confusion.

"Ah, that would belong to me," Seonghwa answers back while raising his hand elegantly. Hongjoong lifts an eyebrow but returns to his list after anyway.

"Four... dictionaries?" he now utters with pure puzzlement.

"You said I could study languages..." Yeosang sheepishly mumbles. "How many languages do you know at this point?" Seonghwa gasps. The blond boy sheepishly shuffles his feet. "I only know five fluently so far but I know quite a bit of seven," he shyly admits.

Everyone compliments Yeosang, impressed, except for one man.

"What is all this? Half of these supplies don't seem very useful to our cause," Hongjoong scoffs. "Well, I'll be honest and say it gets a bit boring here. We have so many rooms in this house but there's nothing in most of them. We need something to do for fun too," Yeosang explains.

Hongjoong glares at the other. "It sounds like you're getting distracted to me," he growls.

"Joong, he's right. I think we should put in a little bit of money into making this place pleasant to live in. All you do is develop the lab in the basement," Seonghwa huffs.

Now Hongjoong starts to consider their pleas. "Okay Hwa, if you think it's necessary then we should have a meeting to discuss what to install," he gives in with a sigh. Everyone else begins a not-so-subtle celebration, high-fiving each other.

"Everyone, Into the meeting room! Let's discuss this over lunch," Seonghwa barks to the three other excited men. They scurry away with no delay, but Seonghwa stays back with the stressed Hongjoong for a second.

"We'll make this work. Your plan is going great so far, so don't worry. You need to sit back and relax too, just like the rest of us," he comforts while resting a hand on Hongjoong's shoulder. Hongjoong stares back at Seonghwa with large eyes, containing an unidentifiable emotion. At last, he offers a small smile. "That's right, we're doing great. Let's go."

The pair enter a large room through their wooden double doors and find that Yeosang is already setting sandwiches at everyone's place on the long wooden table, while Jongho and San converse in low voices beside each other after having set notebooks and pens at every place too.

Seonghwa and Hongjoong sit side by side as they usually do, while Yeosang, Jongho and San sit on the other side. "So, everyone here seems to want this place to have more things to do. What's wrong with the house right now?" Hongjoong begins after clearing his throat.

"May I voice my opinion?" Jongho asks, keeping his voice sophisticated. With one nod of approval from Hongjoong, he straightens up. "This mansion may be our workplace, but it's also where we live. There's nothing to do and it feels cold and empty, especially since the place is so big. We should make use of all the free space," he explains. Hongjoong continues to scribble notes down into his copy.